Public Makes Harsh Judgments About Wright, Poll Says

April 25, 1989|The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- Roughly three quarters of the public say that House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, should voluntarily resign as speaker if the House concludes that he has committed serious violations of House rules, according to a Washington Post poll.

Among those who say they are following the House Ethics Committee investigation into Wright and his financial affairs, three in five say they think he has broken House rules. Among all those surveyed, nearly half (46 percent) agreed with that statement.

Even among members of his own party, Wright is being judged harshly. More than 40 percent of Democrats said Wright has broken House rules, compared to about half of all Republicans and independents.

So far, the Wright investigation has not captured the public`s attention. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said they were not following the story too closely. Asked which party Wright belonged to, less than 40 percent correctly identified him as a Democrat, while almost half said they did not know and one in six called him a Republican.

The poll also showed general cynicism among the public about the overall level of ethics in the House. Asked whether Wright has been more ethical than his peers, less ethical or about the same, slightly more than half of those surveyed (56 percent) said he is about as ethical as other members, while just 14 percent said he is less ethical.

Last week, the committee said it had found reason to think Wright violated House rules 69 times. The committee`s charges fall into two categories: that Wright engaged in a ``scheme`` to evade House limits on outside income by encouraging bulk sales of his book, Reflections of a Public Man, in lieu of payment for speaking appearances; and that Wright and his wife Betty received more than $145,000 in gifts from their friend George Mallick, a Fort Worth developer.

The results are based on telephone interviews with 1,009 randomly selected adults nationwide.